1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, apparatus, and method for processing components of blood. In particular, some aspects of the invention relate to processing blood components through the use of centrifugal separation, filtration, and/or any other form of processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Whole blood consists of various liquid components and particle components. The liquid portion of blood is largely made up of plasma, and the particle components include red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes), and platelets (thrombocytes). While these constituents have similar densities, their average density relationship, in order of decreasing density, is as follows: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. In terms of size, the particle constituents are related, in order of decreasing size, as follows: white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Most current separation devices rely on density and size differences or surface chemistry characteristics to separate blood components.
Separation of certain blood components is often required for certain therapeutic treatments involving infusion of particular blood components into a patient. For example, in a number of treatments involving infusion of platelets, there is sometimes a desire to separate out at least some leukocytes and/or red blood cells before infusing a platelet-rich blood component collection into a patient.
For these and other reasons, there is a need to adopt approaches to processing components of blood.